Morning Bell: The President’s Curious Speech Lacks Solutions

If you’re looking for an iron-clad indictment of Barack Obama’s failed fiscal policies, you don’t have to look much farther than the President’s own words in a speech he delivered yesterday at the Associated Press luncheon in Washington, D.C.

In what was seemingly an attempt to criticize House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) FY2013 budget plan — the only such proposal to emerge from either the House or the Senate — the President dredged up his stale complaints about President George W. Bush’s policies — many of which he has maintained — and turned to scary rhetoric about Trojan horses and social Darwinism in order to paint the conservative vision for fixing America’s budget crisis as a radical one.

To help bolster his case that more Obama-style policies are needed, the President detailed the problems America is still facing, despite three and a half years of his own policies:

Whoever he may be, the next President will inherit an economy that is recovering, but not yet recovered, from the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. Too many Americans will still be looking for a job that pays enough to cover their bills or their mortgage. Too many citizens will still lack the sort of financial security that started slipping away years before this recession hit. A debt that has grown over the last decade, primarily as a result of two wars, two massive tax cuts, and an unprecedented financial crisis, will have to be paid down.

To the extent that the President has identified the problems America is facing today — an unemployment rate that is too high, an economy that is recovering too slowly, lack of financial security, and an out-of-control debt — he’s right. Thank you, Mr. President, for identifying the problems that we are well aware of. Unfortunately, this Administration has not offered any solutions that will fix them. Yet Obama yesterday had the audacity to criticize the Ryan plan — the only budget to pass the House of Representatives that addresses America’s fiscal crisis — saying it would cause air pollution, disease, park closures, flight cancellations, and even a crisis in weather forecasting. Interestingly, President Obama’s own budget was defeated unanimously in the House (414-0) as it was last year in the Senate (97-0).

Heritage’s Patrick Knudsen explains that while the Ryan budget isn’t perfect and could benefit from more aggressive entitlement reforms, “Its policies are measured and carefully crafted, rooted in sound conservative principles, and aimed at winning consensus.” Meanwhile, Knudsen writes, the President is presiding over the fourth straight trillion-dollar-plus deficit of his tenure, has ignored the deficit-cutting recommendations of his fiscal commission, increased the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion without agreeing to any entitlement savings, and has proposed a budget that would increase publicly held debt to more than 76 percent of gross domestic product by 2022.

Contrast the President’s total failure to confront America’s debt crisis with the Ryan plan, which includes proposals similar to those in Heritage’s Saving the American Dreamplan. Heritage’s Alison Fraser explains that under Ryan’s plan, the debt crisis is squarely addressed; Obamacare is repealed and health care is moved from the hands of bureaucrats to patients and doctors; Medicare is preserved with a premium support system that allows America’s seniors to pick the plan that suits them best; and the tax code is reformed not to punish the productive, but to increase growth, wages, and jobs. But under Obama’s vision, Fraser writes, “we close our eyes and pretend that big government has all the answers to every risk and problem in society, real or perceived.”

We have seen the results of that theory in the direction America is headed. Even the President acknowledges the country is in dire straits, yet he refuses to accept that he has had the privilege and responsibility to do something about it. Unfortunately, even though he has the power to help lead the country out of its fiscal crisis, he has consistently refused to do it. Instead he is criticizing those who are stepping up to the plate with real solutions for the American people.

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We gave you eight years of false promises and lies, enough to fool some gullible voters, and you used it to transfer wealth and power to yourselves and dump all of us into a near depression. So now, we insist on keeping our eight years to level the ship out again.

You are not stupid, so you know that you do not stimulate a depressed economy by depressing spending. You know how it works, and we know that you know. So, talk all you want about deficit reduction, you couldn't do it when you had the advantage of a booming economy and that is when it should be done.

Absolutely right Todd…. You don't stimulate the economy with government spending…. FDR tried that and we were a depression for 11 years! The way out of this predicament is to put money in the hands of the people, They will buy durable goods, Those are what create jobs, Not building bridges to no where or putting money into green companies that are buy there supplies from China and going bankrupt. There is not enough money in the country to tax our of debt.

Take a closer look at history. President Obama himself stated that the financial meltdown was a result of two decades of poor policy. I guess he and others did not realize that President Clinton was a Democrat or that the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate for part of this twenty years. It was mostly the Democrats that were pushing for houses for everyone, even if they could not afford them. As far as deficits yes President Bush spent too much but the yearly deficits were decreasing until 2008. Also following the 2003 tax cuts, Federal revenues grew by 40% in the next four years. This was the best four years of growth following any major tax change. The four years following the 1993 tax hike saw a growth of 33%. Not bad but not as good as the tax cuts. In fact if you look at the surplus of the late 1990's it was caused by a spending growth rate of only 4% annually. To balnce the budget, we need a booming economy and a spending growth rate of 4 %.

"…he [Obama] is criticizing those who are stepping up to the plate with real solutions for the American people." I hope the presumptive nominee Romney has the grit to stay on message while the leftist "attack dog" media is chewing on his ankle. Ouch! This campaign is going to be brutal. It is comforting for us to think we conservatives have the message, but the opposition will be doing everything legal or illegal to put Romney on the defensive. A complicit media, dirty tricks, and negative ads are going to be difficult for him to shake off (or ignore). But Romney must…if the left succeeds in defining the debate, we’ve lost.

I'd the president i miss Bill Clinton when it was put on him he balanced the budget, kept energy prices low and built a raging economy. Someone ought to tell the president this is the worst economy in 50 years and its fault.

Michael Rea (9 hours ago) said that Bill Clinto balanced the budget in his tenure. Hate to disagree, but he didn't balance the budget or have a surplus. If you look up the facts there has been a deficit ever since Reagan. Clinton's economic team used "Enron" -type accounting to make it appear that he did this.
Of course Obama is attacking Ryan's budget. His own porposed budget didn't garner a single vote even from his own party. Therefor he must attck someone who actually has ideas to put us back on a more sound finacial footing. Pure Alinsky method.

He will continue to dissemble because he's confident that most of the media will not fact-check him.
The contrast in the way they attack Republicans for the most minor slips and the way they bury any negative happenings in the camp of the Left, is frustrating.
The media is corrupt. There's no polite way to describe them. What puzzles me, is why??
If Obama's policies are carried out to their logical ends, the media will have no freedom except to praise a criminal administration.

the mainstream media is lazy – they just want to pull talking points off of WH web sites. They do no independent fact checking or analysis. And if they don't understand something, they just call the government agency for clarification.

The MMM does it because they can and we as consumers continue to allow it. If people are so upset with MMM antics why not call all major sponors who advertise and insist that they drop advertisements or we as citzens will no longer buyer their products unless they denounce the MMM and pull financial support.

The cold hard truth is Obama has no clue as how to end the "recession". Between his totally inefffective
"stimuli" and his 290+ new regulations plus his "cronyism deals"he has added more to our national debt
than all previous Presidents combined. And he has done it in about 3 years. But from the start his agenda
has been DESTROY AMERICA!!!!!

I believe he knows exactly what he is doing. Taking liberty away from Americans and what better way than to crash all the systems. He's succeeded at taking over the banking industry, the american auto industry, the housing industry, he's about to take over the Healthcare industry, and he's doing everything in his power to kill coal and fossil fuels. He is also against most of our allies and for our enemies. He IS fundamentally changing America as was his stated goal. From a nation of innovation and independence, generous to countries in need, to a state of total government control. Punishment if we do not comply. That is not the country our Founders envisioned. Obama IS on course with his vision of America. Total nanny state with no opportunity, no capitalism, no freedom, no hope.

How many more lies and distortion must Obama repeat over and over again before we all realize he has no intentions to help the American people. To the obvious contrary, Obama is doing everything he can to destroy this nation by collapsing our economy. How much more proof do we need before we understand Obama's aganda is to drive this nation and this government into total socialism with the backing of almost the entire Democrat Party as well as many on the established Republican side.

Tax revenue increased after the tax cuts by almost 40%. Spending increased even faster. The tax cuts by Bush did not cause the problem his inability to contlol spending did. Are you aware of Hauser's Law on tax rates as a percentage of GDP? Higher tax rates do not increase government revenue!

I for one am finally convinced that obama is not very intelligent. He may have been good at school(although no-one has seen his transcripts) but he is simply not very bright. Ever since he has taken office he has blamed someone else for difficulties he was elected to fix. The best slogan for the republican nominee to use after playing all the quotes of obama blaming previous administrations is "when did Hope and Change become " It's Not MY Fault".

"This wasn't a curious speech"
The only difference in this desperation in his speech, is the usage of a "horse" instead, mea culpa.
Every time he opens his mouth about "anything economy" the markets drops steadily in response.
His handlers should advise that he, "Keep his mouth shut."
Meanwhile the D.C rats who support him are all fighting for a spot on the sinking life raft.
It seems to be getting pretty crowded.
We all know that every dog has its day, albeit that his dog is also name "BO."

I am realy curious about what are the "entitlements" that need to be reformed. Again I still do not see any mentions of reducing the size of government. Spending is the biggest problem with the US Government. That cannot continue to spend more money than they take in and raising taxes is not the answer.

It lacks solutions, but more disturbing it lacks truth.
He said the Ryan budget would close "Hundreds of National Parks".
Someone needs to tell him we only have 58 National Parks.
The whole campaign speech was filled with bold LIES!

Folks, I like to copy the URL and post these articles to my Facebook account. Whenever you have an apostrophe in the title, extra characters appear in the FB title and scramble it. Could you please work on a fix?

After almost four years of failed policy after policy, capped off with Obamacare; the President expects the American people to give him four more years to do even more failed policies. Now thats what I call a really good joke. The hypocracy just never seems to end.

Second verse same as the first. His lies are catching up to him. Every living breathing person alive today will never be free again if Obama is given another 4 years. America will never recover from his first 4 years. Do not give up so quickly. We are the best country in the world the most generous, and the first to arrive in the time of a disaster anywhere in the world. Thank GOD our military did not give up in WW1, WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, Desert Storm and Afghanistan. If we do not work for others FREEDOM! We Americans will never be free again. We save others and now it is time to Keep What others have fought and died for all Americans.

Is America working for the freedom of the estimated 100,000 Iraqis that were killed in this last war. America is quilty of one of the biggest massacres of human beings since the genocide of the American Indians, all under the cover of ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons of mass destruction and Bush knew it. Not only did he soil the Soul of America with the blood of over 100,000 Iragi men, women and children, but more Americans died in the war with Iraq than in 911. While they had some of us blinded by the search for weapons of mass destruction, they were raping and robing our country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Since President Obama has been in office, the Republicans has made it their mission to get Obama out of office. That is not what you were elected to do. You were elected to represent the great people of your districts and states. Instead, your behavior has amounted to treason.
Republicans take notice. You have not fooled the majority of American voters then, and we are not fooled now. It is time for you to stop.

my Lord, child. Take a breath. You have written by misleading just like your counterparts. America's mission was always to free people from their torturous government regimes wraps, traps, straps and inhumanity. How could you lower yourself to think so pathetic of those you're taking advantage of now? Bush only went by intelligence to suggest the weapons of mass destruction and why wouldn't you want to be sure then take somebody's "word" or "ignorance" to it's obvious probability? I vote for those who are strong in human qualities of the common good. who defend America's purpose and that only comes from the mouths of Republicans and most of the time, Doug Shoen, Juan Williams can't make up his mind and is offended by someone calling the President the welfare/food stamp president! A fitting name since that's where his governing and abuse of authority is taking my family personally. Juan is very questionable.

Since President Obama took office, our freedom and independence is directly threatened as he forces his way to intrude where our personal livelihoods exist!!! Obama only fools the feeble minded…

There is a reason why Obama's policies continue to be bigger government and more spending. There is a reason why he vilifies every conservative proposal to deal with unemployment, the slow economic recovery, even energy prices. It is a reason that most people do not want to recognize or even to state publicly because it seems so radical. That reason is that Obama does not want to strengthen and preserve the nation we have historically been. That his "fundamental transformation of America" is to a nation that most Americans cannot conceive, a nation of a monstrous, all-knowing, all-powerful central government with a lower standard of living for most Americans as well as a weakened level of power throughout the world. In short, Obama feels that America's wealth should not only be redistributed within the country; the nation's wealth and power should be redistributed throughout the world. He is a very dangerous man.

Everybody can rant and rave all they like about BO and his policies and include GB and his. It will do no good until we rid ourselves of the Democrats and the Republicans and have true Conservatives. Look closely at how your representative or senator voted and then decide if it is a progressive vote or a conservative vote.

The House controls the purse strings. Why don't they control them is the question?

We could eliminate the entire Dept of Energy and save $27B in direct cost. But imagine how much we would save in not heating, electricity, time off, medical expense, law suits, retirement benefits and gasoline from not driving back and forth to work.

OB is not running this country.His 30 odd czars are.And we really don't know anything about his IQ .I think there's something he has hidden about his education.And I'm so worried about his way of winning the election like he did in "08" FRAUD

The dimdems are NOT problem solvers…
they throw money at issues or do some short term patches.
Why u ask? So they can run on them again and again and again of course…
like SocSec, Medi-whatever and such.

They sit by and act as critics of others' plans or ideas…they attack, its how they roll, its their main strategy…witness this 2012 campaign with nothing but toxic failed policies to run on…
they ignore that reality and go on the…u guessed it…the attack with their 3 weapons of daily choice…distractions, lies and smears….as the pawn media changes their diapers…its a good system except that utopian socialism is so painful after a while it trumps daily bold lies and such….

The game is to use others' money to BUY VOTES while exempting themselves and maybe a big pocket backer group from the pain of their moronic utopian policies.

Democrats are NOT problem solvers…they are are attackers….they stay on offense using distractions, lies and smears…they rope-a-dope…cannot even put a budget on the table because it would reveal reality and open them to critics…and they abhor that…

I think the Republicans need to use his speech as a way to frame the debate. When Obama mentioned the endless streams of Government intervention in the lives of Americans, GOP leaders should have seized upon this and turned the speech around on the him. Ask questions like how did this get out of hand and what is the true role of government. Add in a few stories about wasteful spending and voters might see their point.

THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS DISCOVERED THAT THE COMMON MAN IS TOO OFTEN TOO COMMON TO BE A GOOD LEADER FOR THE UNCOMMON LEADERS TO FOLLOW—AMERICA STILL NEEDS UNCOMMON LEADERSHIP AT EVERY POSITION IN CENTRAL GOVERMENT—OUR CONSTITUION DEMANDS IT WHY NOT OUR VOTING CITIZENS? NEVER FORGET THAT UNCOMMON MEN CREATED AND MADE THIS COUNTRY GREAT!!! aS VOTERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SMART ENOUGH TO VOTE THE THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB, NOT THE ONE WHO WE THINK MIGHT GIVE MORE MONEY TO THOSE WHO DO NOT DESERVE IT!

Mr. Obama has no answers to help our economy; All he knows to do is to criticize someone else. Will he ever learn that, regardless who did what in the past, as President it is his responsibility to try to fix things. But no, he just talks, talks, talks. I've never anyone who is soVindictive and self centered.

Its policies (Ryan plan) are measured and carefully crafted, rooted in sound conservative principles, and aimed at winning consensus. Wrong, wrong,wrong. When will Republicans ever learn? When they propose something as a reasonable consensus, the unprincipled leftists will demand compromise as they demagogue it as radical right. The result is we are dragged slowly but surely left into tyranny.
Wake up Republicans, make your plan borderline radical right then compromise on slightly right. The voters respect principle and freedom.

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